


Pretty Cure vs the Forces of Evil

by Raikim4Never



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: F/M, Gen, Justified in-universe taking a level in jerk, M/M, Pony Head's a jerk, Pretty Cure AU, Star and Marco are basically siblings here no Starco, Tom's a jerk, all the Mewni royal kids are jerks, eventually, magical girl au, more tags to come, slow to nonexistant update schedule, there's a good reason for that though I swear!, they get better I swear, why does everything I write have a dark prologue holy cow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2020-06-23 22:07:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19710412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raikim4Never/pseuds/Raikim4Never
Summary: Star Butterfly is a fairly normal earth girl, save for the fact that she and her dad live with three people technically unrelated to them and the fact that her dad keeps telling her she's a magical princess from another dimension. Her father's stories don't seem that far-fetched anymore when she and her pseudo-brother Marco discover a magical book with a little man inside and the forces of evil start attacking Earth. Now it's up to Star and her friends to become Pretty Cure and save her home- both the one she grew up in, and the one she was born to!





	1. Prologue: A Kingdom Falls

Once upon a time, in the Magical Land of Mewni…

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

****BOOM** **

“Get to the portals, quickly!” Queen Moon commanded, Butterfly form a radiant, reassuring blue amid the the smoke and dancing flames.

“Moonpie!” King River called after her. “What about you?!”

“I’ll hold them off!” she assured him, ducking out of the way as a nearby tower crumbled. “Take Star and _go!_ ”

“I’m not going to leave you-”

“I’m not going to argue this, River!” she snapped. “My people need me.” Her eyes calmed. “I’m going to meet up with Mina. With the Commission missing, I don’t know how long the portals will last. If I can, I’ll join the two of you.” Her voice took on a pleading tone. “Please. For our daughter’s sake.”

River bit his lip, nodded, and, cradling his infant daughter in his arms, ran for presumed safety. Moon watched him go for a second, hoping that she would, in fact, be able to join them.

Moon flew through the streets, burning as they were, and tried not to gag as the smell of burning hair everywhere, or the sight of the… bodies… littering the streets. Where there wasn’t fire, there was some sort of black ooze slithering around, squirming on the ground like some sort of living liquid and climbing up anything it could find. Including said bodies. Moon grimaced, and continued to fly. If only she could find Mina.

An inmewman screech, like nails on a chalkboard, were the only warning Moon had as the ooze on multiple posts and wall shot out at her, tips sharpened and ready to impale her. She created a shield that the ooze stabbed through, but it did manage to keep the gunk from reaching her.

A shock of fear crawled up her spine as her shield, as blue as most of her spells, started to turn gray and holes burned through. The ooze got closer…

A body tackled Moon out of the way as her shield failed, saving her from impalement as Moon and her rescuer tumbled through the air for a second. Moon hit a wall, gasped, and shook her head blearily.

“Mina?” she asked, upon seeing her rescuers magically buffed-up appearance floating in front of her. She… did not look good. There were black streaks all over her face and she was shuddering, just barely able to hover in the air.

“My Queen,” Mina gasped out, a pained hiss in her voice as she struggled to breathe without chocking. “You must leave! These things, this thing, it infects magic…”

Moon went cold.

“What about-”

“The Cure Compacts seem unaffected, but everything else, even Butterfly Magic, it’s all being… corrupted.” She finally started chocking, the black streaks on her face glowing red as she seemingly coughed up the same ooze that was swarming on the ground. Moon flew back a foot in horrified shock, then shook her head, steeling herself.

“This thing is threatening all life, in every kingdom. I’m meeting the other Royals in the square, and we’re going to make our final stand, if it is indeed going to be our last. I can’t back out with no warning now.” Moon looked Mina over. “I hope that if we win, we can still save you, after all you’ve done for Mewni.” She turned and flew, missing Mina calling something out after her.

////////////////////////////////////////////////

Moon finally arrived in the square, which was miraculously unaffected by whatever the heck this thing was. It had come out of nowhere, attacking everything, killing everything. At first, Moon and the others had thought it was an attack devised by the monsters, but after extensive… Interrogation, among other things, the thing had seemingly only gotten stronger. It surrounded Mewni, circling the Capital and Castle from even outside the boarders, and closed in. Slowly, at first, but it seemed to gain speed as the Kingdom got even more desperate. In a month, nowhere but the Capital and Castle were left.

Moon shook her head as she landed, having seen her allies already arrived in the square.

“Good, you’re all here! Listen, I’ve been informed that this thing infects magic, so we’ll need to be caref…” she trailed off when she really looked at them. They were all… staring at her. Silently. With wide, nearly blank eyes. “Are… are you all… alright?” she asked worriedly. No response. She looked at each of them, realizing that their expressions were not only similar but in fact perfectly identical. All perfectly neutral, save for the wide eyes. Cautiously, she approached them. “What is the matter with-”

King Kelpbottom, the one she was closest to, grabbed her arm suddenly. His expression didn’t change, he didn’t even look in her direction. Moon nearly had a heart attack from how out-of-nowhere it was.

“Wh- let go!”

“Foolish little Butterfly,” all her allies said at once, with the same exact voice. It wasn’t one she’d heard before. “You should not have come here untransformed, Cure Dia. But then again, you can’t transform anymore, can you?”

“Let go!” Moon shrieked. These were definitely, obviously, _not_ her fellow royals. “Where are my allies?!”

“I removed them,” the thing said through the false faces of her allies, several of the stolen forms outright going up in smoke. “Fear not for their heirs. I shall take _good_ care of them.”

A shiver went down her spine. What was _that_ supposed to mean?!

“Who are you?! _What_ are you?!” The other figures went up in smoke, including King Kelpbottom’s, but her arm was still being held firmly in place by __something__.

The smoke hadn’t dissipated, Moon realized, and she watched in horror as it condensed to form a thick cloud of smoke. The smoke took on a form like a Millhorse, which stared her down with glowing eyes.

“I am every curse spoken allowed or bitten back. Every dark thought and every evil act of desperation. I am the hatred of Monsters and the darkness of Mewmans.” The cloud rushed her, and everything was a smokey fog. Moon lit up her hands with magic, but she could still see nothing. Something grabbed her throat. “Your taint and magic intrigues me. I want you. Give yourself to me.”

Moon struggled, but all she managed was to likely bruise her throat against whatever it was that was holding it.

“Breathe deeply.”

Moon held her breath. Whatever was holding her squeezed her neck. After a full minute her lungs burned for air and she could hold back no longer.

Moon breathed in.

/////////////////////

River watched in horror as the portal fell apart behind him, no sign of his beloved wife in sight.

“Moon?” he asked, numbly, before calling out in a more emotional tone of voice. “Moon!” He ran to where the portal had been. “Moonpie! No! Please! You can’t leave us, we need you! I need you!” He dropped to his knees and sobbed. Terrified his wife had become another body he’d left behind. He knew he’d never know what happened to her now.

Star began crying as well.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, my dear!” he apologized, trying to hold back his tears. “I’m sorry, your mother, she’s… she’s…” he sobbed again.

After a few minutes, there was a polite, awkward cough from behind him. River turned to look and saw a couple, also holding a baby, staring at him.

“Oh. Uh. Hello.”

“Hi,” the woman greeted awkwardly. “Um. We couldn’t help but overhear. And oversee. Since you’re… in our backyard…”

River looked around and saw that he was, in fact, in a fenced off yard with a house on one end.

“Ah…”

“Are you… okay?” the man asked. River cleared his throat.

“I’m- I’m fine!” It probably would have been more convincing if he weren’t still crying slightly. Star’s crying had evolved (devolved?) into hiccuping sobs.

“Do you, uh, want to come inside?” The woman offered. “You look and sound like you’ve been through a lot.”

River stared in shock at the couple, touched. Kingly pride and mournful desperation warred inside him.

“...yes please.”

////////////////

The couple introduced themselves as Angie and Rafael Diaz, and had even let their son Marco play with Star. River in turn introduced himself as the King of Mewni and explained what was going on as best he could, which admittedly wasn’t all that great. The Diazs’ didn’t seem to have ever even __heard__ of Mewni! They had, however, seen River come out of a mysterious portal with a baby and a bag, and had been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The fact that he was still in his royal attire probably helped as well.

River explained that his wife was supposed to join him, tearing up again as he tried to get the words out. The Diazs’ looked at glanced at one another and squeezed each others’ hands, trying not to imagine each other in the same kind of situation.

“What are you going to now?” Rafael asked. River sighed deeply.

“I don’t know. Moon was always the smart one between us. If she were here she’d probably have already found us a place to live already. Maybe conjured something up with her magic.” He shook his head. “I, of course, can live off the land for as long as I choose! I’m a Johansen through-and-through! But…” he looked at his daughter. “But Star deserves better than that all the time everyday. She’s the the crown princess of Mewni for corn’s sake! And even if she weren’t… she’s my daughter. I want the world for her.”

The Diazs’ shared a look.

“If you want,” Angie started slowly. “We could possibly let you stay here for a while. We have a spare bedroom…”

River perked up. The offer was tempting, but he couldn’t possibly…

Could he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't taking over for Monster Carvers, don't worry! Just wanted to quickly write and post this...
> 
> This was _supposed_ to be a birthday present to myself, but I missed the deadline by like, two and a half hours because I had to work. >:/
> 
> Happy late birthday, me! Your present: stress, anxiety, and self-loathing for not finishing this on time!  
> ...  
> I never claimed to be good with gifts.
> 
> Probably not going to continue this for a good while. MC-verse comes first!


	2. Chapter 1: Pretty Cure? Sounds Cool! Cure Cassi Shoots For the Stars! (pt. 1)

“Star? Staaaar. Star. … STAR!”

“ARGH I’M UP I’M UP!”

Star Butterfly tumbled out of bed at the yell of her longtime-housemate Marco Diaz, landing flat on her face on her floor. She groaned then turned to glare at him as he leaned in the doorframe, fully dressed and wide awake.

“I hate you.”

“Love you too,” he deadpanned, before smiling. “Come on, get up already! First day of the new school year!”

“Again, I hate you.” She pushed herself up off of the floor. “I’m so tired.”

“Maybe next year you won’t stay out until 2 AM with Janna, worrying everyone sick by the way, the last day of Summer.”

Star muttered something incomprehensible.

“Mom’s making pancakes, so I’ll meet you downstairs. Who knows?” he smiled. “Maybe you’ll actually get some this time.”

Star threw her pillow at him.

….……………………………………………………………………………………….

“Star!” Star’s dad exclaimed as she trudged down the stairs. “There’s my beautiful Princess!”

“Hi daddy,” she groaned, before slamming her head down on the table. She missed the communal winces.

“Ah, just like Moonpie, not a morning person,” her dad reminisced.

It had been about fourteen years since Star and her dad had moved into the Diaz household, however that had happened. When she was little her dad had made up some weird story about a magic kingdom, but he’d never changed it when she got older and asked for the real story. It was kind of annoying, especially since it meant she didn’t know anything about her mom. Her real mom, not the queen from her dad’s story.

Janna had theorized brain damage. Star had whacked her for that.

“Move your face, sweetie,” Mrs. Diaz said and Star rolled her face to the side, making room for the plate of pancakes that were set down sort-of in front of her. Star perked up immediately.

“Yessss!”

“Oh, sweetheart, before I forget!” he Dad suddenly said, then ran out of the room. Star wondered if she was supposed to follow him, but before she could he came back into the kitchen, carrying something. He placed the thing, an old-looking book, on the table as Star finished her pancakes.

“What’s this?” Marco asked, reaching his hand out for it. River smacked the outstretched hand, causing Marco to retract it instantly, whining a little in pain.

“ _This_ ,” River said, “is your mother’s old spellbook! It was passed down from mother to daughter on their fourteenth birthday for generations.”

“..dad, my birthday was like, a week ago.”

“Yes, well,” River deflated, “I couldn’t, uh, find it.”

“Dad,” Star groaned. “I’m too old for your dumb fairytale!”

“Honey, it’s no fairytale,” River brushed off. “I know I’ve told you more than once that you’re-”

“Yeah, yeah,” her voice took on a borderline mocking tone, “I’m a _maaagical princess_ from another dimension.” She waved her arms to mimic a rainbow, then slammed her hands on the table. “That would be cool if it was _true_ Dad, but it’s not! I’m not a little girl, I know magic isn’t real!” She picked up the book. “ _This_ isn’t real!” She shoved her chair back and stood up. “I need to finish getting ready for school.”

The other four occupants of the kitchen watched her speed walk away. River just sighed, though he didn’t seem dejected by Star’s attitude at all.

“Well, I tried,” he said, then brightened. “And she took the book!” He put his hands on his hips and nodded. “My work here is done.”

“But you didn’t do…” Marco sighed. “Nevermind.” He got up himself. “I’m gonna go talk to her. Thanks for breakfast, Mom!”

….………………………………………………………………………………………

Star was not, in fact, getting ready for school, but instead sitting on her bed when Marco found her, staring at the book.

“Hey, Star?” Marco asked, sitting next to her. “You okay? It’s not like you to yell at-”

“Was I too harsh?” Star asked quickly. “I don’t think I was too harsh. It’s not wrong for me to want to know my real mom! But I still feel kinda guilty.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have snapped…”

“Well, he didn’t seem upset,” Marco offered. “Just happy you took that book.”

“Oh! Well, that’s good then.” Star nodded to herself. Her dad didn’t seem to take anything seriously, but that was working out in her favor, as per usual.

“You should still apologize, though.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Star waved her hand at Marco vaguely. “I will. After school.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………

“Hey Star, welcome back to the place of teenage torment,” Janna, leaning back in her chair, greeted when Star and Marco, then glanced at Marco. “Hey Marco.”

“How are you so awake,” Star complained. “That is so unfair.”

“Coffee and naps,” Janna shrugged. “My parents actually let me drink the stuff.”

“I don’t believe that,” Marco said, not looking up from his backpack as he dug through it. Janna snorted.

“Wasn’t talking to you.”

“Morning, everyone,” a new voice greeted and Marco dropped what he was holding to sit up ramrod straight.

“Hi Jackie!” Star greeted. Janna gave the girl a half-interested ‘morning’ and Marco tried and failed to stammer out some form of greeting. Star rolled her eyes at her best friend and pseudo-brother’s debilitating crush.

A second later Ms. Skullnick stormed stomped in with a scowl.

“Okay, hooligans,” she said in her growly, scratchy voice, “You know today is going to be easy, I know today is going to be pointless, so let’s get the ridiculous review started. I’ll be coming around to collect your summer assignments during class, so make sure you have those at the ready!”

….………………………………………………………………………………………

Meanwhile, a dimension away…

There was a flash of light, then another, and another, which illuminated the drab and dreary stone walls of an abomination of an amalgamated castle, cast in otherwise perpetual darkness. There were a number of startled shouts and irritated hisses at the sudden bright lights.

“Lilacia!” someone snapped. “Would you cut that out?!”

The culprit behind the lights, a decapitated unicorn head floating in midair, rolled her eyes.

“No,” she said with a snort. She let loose another flash of light, just to spite the other person currently in the same room as her.

“LILACIA! Quit it!” the someone snapped again. Lilacia turned to glare.

“Don’t call me that!” she growled. She _hated_ her name, that was a fact that was well-known to all occupants of the Twisted Castle. The other person smirked.

“ _Lilacia~,_ ” he said in a singsong voice, proving spite worked both ways.

“Oh, you did _not-_ ” Lilacia growled, getting in the face of the other, who glared back himself.

The door slammed open, shaking the frame from the force with which the opener used.

“Would you two _quit arguing?!_ ” snapped another someone. “I can here you two from my room, which means the others probably can too!”

The statement was, at least it part, a warning. Neither of the two arguing parties wanted to deal with everyone else’s wrath. Especially not from their Caretaker.

“She _started_ it,” the only boy in the room whined. Lilacia snorted again.

“Tattletale.”

“I don’t _care_ who started it,” the girl who’d entered snarled. “I’ll finish it. You want more holes in you, Rock?” The girl pointed at Lilacia. “‘Cause I’ve got a pointy object to help me help you with that right there!”

“Silence,” a quiet yet authoritative voice carried through the room and all three teenagers stiffened and in a second were huddled together in fear.

The Caretaker. She wasn’t physically there, but all three occupants of the room could feel her presence practically crushing them just from having her attention turned towards them from afar. It was suddenly very hard to breathe.

“Now that’s not how royalty should act, now is it?” the voice continued. Starved for air, the three merely nodded with exaggerated motions in the hopes that The Caretaker would allow them to breathe again before they passed out. She did.

As she took a desperate gulp of air (despite not seemingly having any lungs) Lilacia suddenly found herself surrounded by a flash of light that she didn’t create, and realized that she had been transported elsewhere. She glanced around nervously, before spotting the shadowy silhouette of The Caretaker herself. Her ears went flat against her head and her fur stood on end. Nothing good tended to come from coming face-to-face with The Caretaker.

“Oooh… Heeeey… Ma’am…” Lilacia shivered involuntarily as The Caretaker’s glowing eyes locked onto her. “For the record, I’m totally innocent, that whole unseemly fighting bit was totally Rock’s fault…”

The Caretaker held up her hand and Lilacia had to bite her tongue to stop talking.

“I have a mission for you. Succeed and your misbehavior will be forgiven. Fail and you will be punished for your bad behavior and your failure both.”

Lilacia’s ears perked up. She was finally going to _do_ something? Get out of this stupid, stuffy castle?

“Sounds like a party to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made the eyecatch at the end myself! :3


	3. Pretty Cure? Sounds Cool! Cure Cassi Shoots For the Stars! (pt. 2)

“It’s the first day,” Star groaned in complaint, before smacking her head on the lunch table. “Why did Ms. Skullnick give us _homework?!_ ”

“Because she’s the embodiment of evil,” Janna said, poking her lunch with her fork. It refused to budge. “Ugh, and so’s this food.” Star hummed in agreement, pulling out her own lunch, handmade by- it looked like her dad today. She could tell because pretty much everything in it was made out of corn, even when it probably shouldn’t be.

She was just about to take a bite of her sandwich (on cornbread, naturally) when she noticed someone loitering in front of the school. That in and of itself wasn’t too weird, there were plenty of students in front of the school. What was weird was that Star didn’t recognize this girl at _all_ , and given the way she looked, with lots of obnoxious jewelry and bright pink hair, she would definitely have made an impression on Star had she seen her before. Curious, Star shoved her lunch back in her bag, slung said bag over her shoulder, and approached the girl.

“Hey!” she greeted cheerfully. The girl didn’t turn to look at her, a fact that Star cheerfully ignored. “Are you new?”

No answer.

“Uh, excuse me?” Star tried again.

“Oh, I’m sorry, were you seriously talking to me?” the girl said, turning to Star. Star reeled back slightly at her haughty tone, like the girl was taken by honest surprise that Star thought she had the right to talk to her.

“Yes?” Star answered, startled. The girl, who was shorter than Star by several inches, just huffed and turned back around.

“Well, you know, don’t. I don’t recall giving you permission to talk to me.”

Star gaped for a second at the girl. The only one in school who came even close to this rude was Brittany! Still, Star wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was just new kid jitters, or maybe she was just having a bad day? Or both? ...okay, so that was probably a stretch, but still. Benefit of the doubt!

“Uh, well.”

“No, seriously, stop. I’m _busy._ ”

Star crossed her arms and pouted.

“With what? You’re just kinda… staring at the school.”

The girl whipped around to glare at Star.

“You know what?” she growled. “To heck with this stupid pointless ‘stealth’ crud.”

There was a blinding flash that seemed to have weight behind it, knocking Star over. Once she finished blinking the dancing lights out of her eyes and looked back to where the girl was she blinked some more because she had to be hallucinating. Where the girl had been standing just a second ago, there was a floating, decapitated horse head. That said, several other students had let out shocked exclamations of surprise, so maybe she hadn’t hit her head after being flashbombed after all.

“Oh yeah,” the horse head said in the exact same voice as the girl. “This is _so_ much better!” She grinned viciously, and her horn glowed black. “Now…” The black glow condensed into a ball at the top of her horn and with a flick she sent it skyward. The chaos that had been going on since the girl turned into whatever she was suddenly cut off completely with a series of thuds. Star whipped her head back and forth and her breath caught in her throat when she saw everyone was now still on the ground. Her eyes were drawn to one specific, red-clad individual lying near the flagpole.

“Marco?” she called, perhaps unwisely, unwittingly drawing attention to herself as bolted to her friend. “MARCO!”

“Okay, how are _you_ not down?” Star ignored the girl as she checked her best friend, and let out a sigh of relief at the revelation that he was just unconscious, not dead. She whirled on the other girl.

“What did you _do?!_ ” Star demanded.

“Hey, I ain’t saying nothing until you give me an answer!” The ponyhead snapped back, before looking thoughtful. “Actually you know what? I don’t care.” She pointed her horn at Star. “If you can stay awake through me startin’ this whole thing, you’ll make an awesome Stingermask!”

Star neither knew nor cared what the heck a Stingermask was. She hefted Marco’s unconscious form over her shoulders and ran into the school, narrowly dodging a beam from the ponyhead. Star slammed the door shut and looked around the school and winced. More unconscious bodies were spread out everywhere, most were on the ground, a few were leaning on or had their heads in lockers, and some students were in even stranger places. Star had to put Marco down briefly to rescue Matt from drowning in the water fountain, and Linda was wedged in the rungs of the stair rail for… some reason.

Ignoring that, Star tried to bring Marco to the nurse’s office, before realizing she had no idea what else to do. The nurse was currently passed out in her chair, looking like she’d fall over onto the floor at any point. For lack of other ideas, she put Marco in the cot thing for people who were brought in. She looked around, wondering if maybe she could find a weapon or- she spotted herself out of the corner of her eye in a mirror and was her bag glowing? How long had it been glowing?

Forgoing her search for a weapon, she slung her bag off her shoulders and opened her bag and saw the book her dad had given her was the source of the weird light. She winced slightly, recalling the way she yelled at her dad. Suddenly his insistence about magic didn’t seem so crazy or condescending, she had already planned to, but now she would _definitely_ have to apologize when she got home.

Figuring that all of this stuff was magic anyway, she opened the book. It let out a brilliant flash of light and Star yelped and covered her eyes again. Was all magic this bright? When she lowered her arms she was left gaping when she saw a tiny blue man, maybe around a foot tall, stretch and yawn.

“Wow,” the little blue man said, “it feels like I’ve been in that book for _ages_.”

“Uh, hi?” Star greeted awkwardly.

“Oh, hello. Princess Star Butterfly, I assume?”

“I guess!” She said, throwing her hands in the air. “The past ten-ish minutes have been _really weird_.”

“Well, I suspect it’ll only get weirder,” the blue man shrugged. “Oh right, you don’t know who I am, do you?” He threw his arms up and words appeared over him. “I am Glossaryk of Terms mentor of Mewman Princesses and current guardian of the Cure Compacts.” The words sparkled for a bit, before fading away. Glossaryk shrugged. “That second one is kind of a recent development, though. Well, recent relative to me, anyway.”

There were several different questions that Star wanted to ask, but she couldn’t decide what to prioritize, and instead just blurted out the first one that came to mind.

“Cure Compacts?”

Before Glossaryk could elaborate, the entire room shook. Star flinched and grit her teeth, but Glossaryk didn’t react at all, switching to going into what looked vaguely like the Lotus Position to Star. When the shaking stopped, Glossaryk put his hands together so that his fingers (which, Star noticed, he had entirely too many of) formed a circle shape, and a ball of light began glowing in the space. He spread his arms, and the tiny ball of light expanded and flew over to her, stopping directly in front of her face. With a faint ‘pop’ sound, the light bliped out, leaving what looked like an ovular compact mirror behind, which she caught.

The compact was smooth and shiny, with a pink top so pale that she thought it was white for a second, and bordering the entire top was a circle of tiny gems of different colors. In the center of the compact was a shiny silver star marking that was glowing slightly. When she opened it she found, well, a mirror, a few differently colored things that looked like some kind of make-up before Star realized they were _buttons_ of all things, and a heart-shaped… sticker? Maybe? This, Star figured, was probably the Cure Compact that Glossaryk had mentioned. She glanced away from it and back at him. He’d mentioned he was the ‘guardian’ of the Cure Compacts and he was just… giving her one?

“I get the feeling you’ll be needing this in a bit,” Glossaryk told her, assumed a reclining position, and proptly dropped back into the book. “The magic words are ‘Pretty Cure, Illumination’, and you stick one of those little sticker things on your cheek. Simple!” With that, the book closed by itself, leaving Star more confused than ever. Before she could react the book suddenly opened back and Glossaryk pointed at her. “And don’t go giving it away, either! That’s a powerful magical artifact!” Then the book slammed shut again.

There was more rumbling and suddenly one of the walls was gone. In it’s place was the horse head and some kind of giant monster that looked like it was vaguely based on a car.

“ _There_ you are!” the horse head declared, delighted malice dripping from her tone as a predatory grin grew on her face. “Now, your comin’ with-” She cut off when she saw what Star was holding in her hands, and her eyes popped comically. “Ooooh, no way! Is that… a Cure Compact?! Girl, you gotta give that to me! If I bring something like _that_ back… ha! I’ll be able to rub that in the others faces _so hard._ ”

Star clutched the compact to her chest protectively, eyes darting between the horse head and the car monster.

“I’m not going to give this to you! You summoned some weird monster, attacked me, and knocked out everyone across campus! Not in that order!”

The horse head glared.

“Excuse me? I told you to hand that over, so…” Her horn started glowing black. “GIMMIE!”

The horse head shot a ball of black at Star and the world seemed to slow down. She tightened her grip on the compact, snapping it open, and grabbed one of the stickers as well as one could grab anything with one finger.

“Pretty Cure, Illumination!”

….……………………………..

Light. Light and warmth and _power_ and what was even going on?! Then the light faded and Star wasn’t Star anymore, except she was, but she was someone, some _thing_ else too. But… no that wasn’t the right way to describe it, either. She was… more? Or…

The light and warmth faded, but the power remained, although it felt lesser. Star still felt like she was… whatever it was that was different. She looked at her hands and realized she was suddenly wearing gloves. A quick once-over at her outfit revealed she was dressed _completely_ differently now and was her hair longer too? She tugged her hair around to look at and yes, it was _definitely_ longer, and bright pink, too!

“Whaaaaaat?” she gaped, confused.

“Aw, no _way_ ,” the horse head groaned. “Is that a Pretty Cure? Ugh. And this was goin’ _so_ well…” She visibly steeled herself. “Actually, no, you know what? I’m _still_ gonna win, and I’ll be able to rub this in everyone’s faces even _more!_ ” She turned to the car monster thing. “You! Darkthought! Get ‘er!”

Before Star (?) could contemplate the weird tackiness of that name, the car monster thing started reaching for her. Time seemed to slow down again as it’s metal parts groaned, and Star, for lack of any other ideas, ran towards it and jumped on it’s wrist. The monster, a Dark Thought, apparently, pulled it’s arm out of the building and reached for her with it’s other hand, which Star jumped to dodge.

As she found out when she cleared twenty feet and kept going up, she could jump a _lot_ higher now.

“Too high!” She did _not_ shriek or start flailing her arms, and there were no witnesses to say otherwise. “Too high!” She _might_ have started screaming when she started plummeting back to Earth but again, no witnesses.

The horse head winced as she bellyflopped onto the metal monster, sending them both to the ground hard.

“Oooooh, that looked like it _hurt_.”

Star stumbled to her feet and realized that, no, she wasn’t hurt at all, actually? The Darkthought looked like it was in significantly worse shape than she was, and slowly got to it’s feet. A sense of determination filled her and she balled her fists. If her arms were as strong as her legs apparently were…

She ran at the Darkthought, jumped, and punched the thing hard before it had a chance to recover. It went flying back, slamming into another building across from her in a vaguely sitting position, and didn’t get back up. It twitched a bit as it struggled to get up, before giving up with a groan.

“Great. My first outing ever and I run into one of those Legendary Warriors,” the horse head whirled on Star. “You!” she snorted. “Who are you, anyway?!” Star took a step back at the fury in her tone.

“Me? I’m, uh…”

What was she supposed to say here? Her name? This was some weird Sailor Moon thing, should she say Sailor Star or something? She didn’t want to give this creep her real name! …of course, this creep saw her transform so maybe there was no point in hiding it…

A name suddenly pinged at the back of her brain, along with other words. What the heck? They sounded pretty good. She threw one of her hands in the air because, again, that just felt like the thing to do.

“The figure of beauty, powered by the stars!” She twirled, then spread her arms. “Cure Cassi!”

The newly-named Cure Cassi pointed at the horse head.

“And who exactly are _you_?”

The horse head looked startled at the question, and her eyes quickly darted to the side, before looking at Cassi again.

“...Ponyhead. Just. Uh. Call me Ponyhead.” Ponyhead looked at the downed monster. “Ugh, I should have known that weird kid wouldn’t make a good monster!”

Star blinked.

“Wait, that thing used to be a person?!” Suddenly anxious, Cassi looked around and noticed a familiar car was missing from in front of the school. As if responding to Cassi’s fears, part of the monster’s armor, a circular piece that looked sort of like a black and green porthole, fell off slightly, revealing a familiar, if unconscious face. “Oscar?”

“Issat his name?” Ponyhead asked. “Meh, didn’t put up much of a fight against either of us.”

“You…” Cassi clenched her fist as fury filled her. She may or may not have crush on him currently, and it sounded like Ponyhead had just… just attacked him! “You turned him into a monster!”

“Uh, yeah, doy?” Ponyhead smirked. “What are you gonna do about it?”

Cassi didn’t know. She felt like she should be able to pull out some kind of… Sailor Moon-esc attack, Cassi Tiara something something, and fix this, but what? She had to fix this! If she didn’t, Oscar would be a monster forever! Everyone might not wake up! Who knew what Ponyhead would do in that case?!

Cassi wouldn’t let her do this. She had to do something! Anything!

Another ping at the back of her mind answered her desperation, and suddenly Cassi knew what to do. She wasn’t sure how, but she did. She brought out her Compact again.

“Doing your makeup in battle?” Ponyhead asked, then looked contemplative. “Yeah, okay, I get you. Gotta look your best even if your beaten.”

“I’m not beaten!” Cassi snapped, popping the compact open and placing her fingers on the buttons. “Pretty Cure!” She swiped her hand across then quickly, and her fingernails began glowing bright enough that Cassi could see the different colors swirling even through her gloves. She held out her hand, the glowing one, and suddenly drew something, she wasn’t sure what, in front of her in the air with the light. Somehow, the lights stayed in place. “Charming…” She threw her hand forward, pushing the drawing towards Ponyhead and the monster-ized Oscar. “Andromeda!”

Ponyhead yelped and flew out of the way, but the Darkthought could do no such thing. The attack hit it dead-on, the lights connected to each point of light (stars?) tangling the monster, before each ‘star’ quickly honed in on it one at a time, cracking the armor more and more with each hit, until the last one launched into it. With a cry, the Darkthought was enveloped in light and where the monster once was, Oscar (still unconscious) and his car now were.

Cassi whooped and threw her arms in the air. Victory!

“Oh, I am in _so_ much trouble,” Ponyhead muttered to herself, before taking some scissors out from where her neck should have been, cutting a hole in reality, and leaving. The hole closed after she left, and the air felt lighter. All around Cassi, people were starting to get up, and a quick look-around showed that even the property damage caused by the Darkthought and Cassi’s fight was disappearing, as though the entire thing had never happened.

With a quiet, chime-like pop and a dull flash of light, Cure Cassi changed back to Star. Star blinked in confusion and looked at her now bare hands.

Had that really just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giant monsters the Cures fight = Darkthoughts  
> Dime-a-dozen minions = Stingermasks


End file.
